Amish and Virginity

[QAF_Rocks]

You're right! I think that's the British title, and Amish on Break is the one that was used when it aired on National Geographic.

[Esther]

That may be the one I saw a while back - it was really funny because one UK lady asked one of the boys if their community tried to deal in any way with global warming, and he said they thought it was hilarious, and she just went... o.O, you don't think it's real? And it amused me because that's not even an Amish thing, to think global warming is a hoax, but in Europe it isn't really an opinion... anyone holds, as far as I know.

I think the Amish are more sensible about virginity and purity than many of the fundies we snark, or at least their attitudes are significantly different. What I do think is bad about the Amish is the way they get away with inadequately schooling their kids. What chance do these kids stand if they suddenly realize they want to go to college at 18? What trouble do you have to go to to still achieve that when you don't even know who JFK was? It's mind-boggling.

[CustardTart]

What I do think is bad about the Amish is the way they get away with inadequately schooling their kids. What chance do these kids stand if they suddenly realize they want to go to college at 18? What trouble do you have to go to to still achieve that when you don't even know who JFK was? It's mind-boggling.

What they do in that circumstance is get their GED, go to community college and then take it from there. I know a few who've done that. But this is recent. Back in the day, the Amish community felt there was no need to learn what "English" kids learn because the Amish kids were expected to work on a farm and the women made extra money crafting. So that's what they learned. They saw it like some of say why should we be learning trig in high school when we'll never use it kind of thing. But these days, the Amish are becoming more open to higher education because there isn't enough farmland left for all their kids, and what's available is too expensive to buy, so the kids are being forced to do other things. The majority work in factories or construction, though, so it's only a minority who do go to college. And it's 99% boys who do.

[Elle]

I've read that it's very common for Amish firstborns to be born big and healthy a few months early. I'm sure it varies by community, but whatever I was reading said over 50% of firstborns were born in the first 8 months or so of marriage. Sex is going to happen, like it does everywhere, and I imagine Amish teens are very uneducated about contraception and safe sex. They would be heavily shamed for having a baby out of marriage and they think abortion is evil (though I'd be surprised if it didn't still happen), so they have to rush into marriage.

In some ordnungs, if you get knocked up before marriage and get married before birth, it's all good. So I bet a lot of premarital boot-knocking is happening.

[Soldier of the One]

Which goes to show that the obsession with purity is so, so intensely modern. Or Victorian at best.

Oh, the reinvention of tradition...